Renting a car after disembarking

[eacdabney]

I've never cruised before so I'm not sure what time to expect to disembark. I do know you disembark in waves though. We have two rooms for our party (Mom, Husband, Daughter (7), and Son (2)). What time should we typically expect to get off the ship? Reason I ask is that we are renting a car to drive back to Orlando and not sure what time to put that we will pick-up the car. So these are my questions:

(1) What is the typical time you get off the ship so that I can pick a rental pick-up time?
(2) Should the whole family get on the shuttle to pick up the rental or is it easier for just one to go and then come back to get everyone?
(3) Anyone have any good/bad recommendations for either Dollar or Thrifty rentals? I have a discount thru work for either of them and they are exactly the same price for a mini-van. We will be returning the van at MCO the next day.

Thanks!

 

[TDC Nala]

After trying to make the decision I put that we will pick up the car at 10, so I can return it at a decent time in the AM the next day without being charged for another day's rental, but we are not in a hurry to disembark and will wait. (It's Avis, not Dollar or Thrifty, so can't do any recommendations)

 

[eacdabney]

After trying to make the decision I put that we will pick up the car at 10, so I can return it at a decent time in the AM the next day without being charged for another day's rental, but we are not in a hurry to disembark and will wait. (It's Avis, not Dollar or Thrifty, so can't do any recommendations)

Our flight the next day is at noon. I would prefer to choose 10am to 10am the next day but didn't know what time you have to get off the boat.

 

[outahere]

Our flight the next day is at noon. I would prefer to choose 10am to 10am the next day but didn't know what time you have to get off the boat.

They try to have everyone off the ship by 9:00. Just fyi....... getting through security at the Orlando airport can be a very long process. We've waited in line for up to an hour a couple of times. Weekends are much worse than weekdays (we went through security in less than 15 minutes this past Monday, around noon). I would suggest getting to the airport with plenty of time to spare, so a 9:00am car pickup would work ok.

It is much easier for everyone to go the rental office on the shuttle. If they are extremely busy, it could be quite a wait for those left at the port.

 

[pdwimmer]

One more item to note, you don't get charged by the pick up time you put on the reservation. You get charged based on the actual time of pick-up and drop off. So put the earliest that you think you will arrive. They won't cancel the reservation if you don't show up until a few hours later. I travel for work and have been as late as 8 hours and the car is still there.

 

[jdemwe]

Are there rental agencies at the port? I had looked on Port Canaveral’s website and did not see any, but maybe I just completely missed them.

 

[pdwimmer]

Are there rental agencies at the port? I had looked on Port Canaveral’s website and did not see any, but maybe I just completely missed them.

Hi there: They are all a few miles from the port and they will have shuttles running all morning from the port to the car rental location. They will be listed as Cape Canaveral.

 

[DakotaDisneyLover]

We are always off the ship around 9-9:30; we take our time, but you can get off earlier if you want. We have twice rented from Avis. The shuttles all drive up outside the terminal, so you won't have a problem finding your shuttle, as they are clearly marked. It really is a piece of cake. We all get on the shuttle to go pick up the car. You may want to go to mousesavers dot com to get some discount codes on car rental agencies. We always do that and manage to get a pretty good deal. They have lots of good tips and money saving ideas there. Good luck, you will have a magical time on your cruise!

 

[eacdabney]

Are there rental agencies at the port? I had looked on Port Canaveral’s website and did not see any, but maybe I just completely missed them.

I had to look it up as Cocoa Beach and that's when the Port Canaveral option came up.

 

[cmclaura]

Don't always go by the codes they offer through work. You can often find better ones just by Googling the name of the car rental company and the words "promo code" or "discount code".

Be sure to also check the car rental company sites for specials. I believe Thrifty has the Wild Card special at times. That being said, Thrifty also has a drop off charge for one-way rentals which can often make that one day, one-way rental more expensive than the competitors. And Thrifty and Dollar are being bought out by Hertz, which is often the most expensive car rental company (I used to work for them at their UK HQ) so prices may start creeping up.

I've compared all the prices and actually found a super deal on Hertz once, on Thrifty twice and have used Budget for the majority of my rentals MCO-port and vice versa. And all with promo codes found online.

Of course, nothing compares to the 50 pound sterling ($80) rate I found with Enterprise for a full week's rental in England a couple years back. Even the folks at the Entreprise rental counter couldn't believe that. Research and Googling like mad works every time.

 

[eacdabney]

Don't always go by the codes they offer through work. You can often find better ones just by Googling the name of the car rental company and the words "promo code" or "discount code".

Be sure to also check the car rental company sites for specials. I believe Thrifty has the Wild Card special at times. That being said, Thrifty also has a drop off charge for one-way rentals which can often make that one day, one-way rental more expensive than the competitors. And Thrifty and Dollar are being bought out by Hertz, which is often the most expensive car rental company (I used to work for them at their UK HQ) so prices may start creeping up.

I've compared all the prices and actually found a super deal on Hertz once, on Thrifty twice and have used Budget for the majority of my rentals MCO-port and vice versa. And all with promo codes found online.

Of course, nothing compares to the 50 pound sterling ($80) rate I found with Enterprise for a full week's rental in England a couple years back. Even the folks at the Entreprise rental counter couldn't believe that. Research and Googling like mad works every time.

Believe it or not Thrifty and Dollar are almost half the price of the others even with the one way drop off penalty. I did look directly thru their web sites and it is a bit better price even without a coupon. I'm just curious if going with them is any easier/worse than going with Budget/Hertz/Avis/Enterprise with getting the car and returning at MCO?

 

[kcashner]

There are no car rental outlets at the port. There are outlets in CAPE Canaveral and Cocoa Beach. Discount rental codes are at rentalcodes.com and mousesavers.com

Everyone is asked to be off the ship by 9. If you want your car from 10A to 10A, that's what to put on the reservation. That should work reasonably well with getting off the ship between 8:30 and 9. The time that will be on the rental sheet will be the time you actually take the car, not what you put on the reservation. And with a noon flight, you'll want to be back at MCO no later than 9:30.

Prices vary a lot; I don't care how they allocate the figures, I care what the total amount I'll pay is! We've seen Thrifty be least, but typically Budget is least with the discount codes.

 

[WDW4TheGirls]

I have a similar question--we are going to Disneyworld for a few days first, then the cruise, then will be staying in FL for a few days after. We were thinking it would be cheapest to rent a car for the first few days, return it near the cruise before boarding, then re-rent a car after the cruise for the final part of the trip--to avoid paying for the rental car to sit in the terminal parking for 3 days while we are on the ship (and avoid the parking fees too). How hard is it going to be to return a rental car before we get on the ship that morning? We have a 11-11:30am boarding time.

 

[outahere]

I have a similar question--we are going to Disneyworld for a few days first, then the cruise, then will be staying in FL for a few days after. We were thinking it would be cheapest to rent a car for the first few days, return it near the cruise before boarding, then re-rent a car after the cruise for the final part of the trip--to avoid paying for the rental car to sit in the terminal parking for 3 days while we are on the ship (and avoid the parking fees too). How hard is it going to be to return a rental car before we get on the ship that morning? We have a 11-11:30am boarding time.

Returns are pretty easy at the agencies near the port.

As for doing two rentals, I would suggest you compare the price for two rentals versus one long one. We returned from a cruise and short WDW stay this past Monday and it was less expensive to do one long (9 days) rental than to do two shorter ones. The price for a 3 day rental after the cruise was $20 more, for just those 3 days, than the entire 9 day rental. Even with the parking charge at the port, it worked out to be cheaper to do the one longer rental.

When I was comparing prices, it looked like the prices to pick up at the port were almost 3 times more expensive, on a per day basis, than picking up at MCO.

Be sure to check for discount codes at the web sites kcashner mentioned. We've usually had pretty good luck with the WalMart code at Budget. I would also suggest checking the prices online every so often, prior to your trip. I originally booked this past May and when I checked again about a month ago, the total price had dropped almost $400 for the longer rental, so I cancelled the first one and booked another at the cheaper rate.

 

[cmclaura]

Believe it or not Thrifty and Dollar are almost half the price of the others even with the one way drop off penalty. I did look directly thru their web sites and it is a bit better price even without a coupon. I'm just curious if going with them is any easier/worse than going with Budget/Hertz/Avis/Enterprise with getting the car and returning at MCO?

I believe that. It does happen. You might just try Budget again with the code Y937800; it's the one I always use and the posted price often drops by half. And they don't charge a one-way drop fee. That fee always strikes me as highway robbery as the cars basically come from MCO to the port and from the port right back to MCO.

All the rental companies send shuttles to the port; it's 10 minutes to their depots. It's just luck of the draw how quickly they come back and forth. Drop off at MCO has never been a problem; they've really got returns to a science there.

 

[Our 2 Princesses]

We are going to wdw before our cruise so we will use magical express to get to AoA but we would like to go to cocoa beach overnight before our cruise. Will a rental car company send a shuttle to AoA so we are able to rent a car and then drop it off at the port? I hope this makes sense.

 

[jessrose18]

yes, check out national or alamo...they have a location called car care center, or dolphin hotel that have a shuttle that will pick you up and bring you to rental center. I have used car care center and liked it, right outside the magic kingdom. Just choose to pick up there, and drop off at cape canaveral. A lot of times this is cheaper than picking up at mco.

 

[Our 2 Princesses]

Thank you so much for your help. So, they send a shuttle to pick up the driver, then?

 

[Our 2 Princesses]

Sorry just saw you said they send a shuttle. Oops! Thanks again!

 

[racingfandj]

We travel several times a year and I shop constantly for cars, even after I've made what looks like a good deal. They change constantly and most don't require any payment up front to make a reservation. Also, use the travel consolidator sites to search. I sometimes find better deals there than through the agency directly.

FWIW - this summer we used Dollar (it and Thrifty are same offices). 1-way rental from SFB to port did not have one-way charge, but 1-way rental from port to SFB did. Don't know if either point matters, but on arrival, we had economy car and only 1 day. On departure, we had minivan and multiple days.